Of late there has been an increasing chorus of discontent coming from the LGBT communities in response to Barack Obama's perceived abandoning of two of the central promises made to us during the campaign.
First there is the matter of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" the disastrous gays-in-the-military policy that has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of gay and lesbian service members with extraordinary skills and impeccable records while costing US tax-payers untold millions of dollars. President Obama promised a repeal of DADT would be high on his agenda once elected. At this juncture there has been no effort whatsoever to begin the process of repealing this policy. It should be noted that the president does not have the authority to repeal this policy all by himself. It was enacted by congress, found to be constitutional when it was challenged and, thus, can only be repealed by congress. Though the Democrats have all the votes they need to over-turn DADT to date there has been no effort to do so and – at least publicly – no discussion of it. At most we have been told many-a-variation on "we have enough on our plate right now" so as to excuse the lack of action on fulfilling this rather straightforward campaign promise.
The second item on our agenda he appears to have back-tracked on ( many would say completely abandoned ) was a concerted effort to overturn the "Defense Of Marriage Act" enacted by congress and signed into law by that other great promiser-in-chief Bill Clinton. Like DADT, DOMA cannot be repealed by presidential fiat but must be undone by congress. Clearly this is not going to happen. A fact made all the more apparent by the almost rapturous endorsement of DOMA recently presented by the Obama Administration to support continued enforcement of the policy in the face of ongoing legal challenges percolating their way through the Justice Department.
Obama has long made it clear that he does not support "Gay Marriage", siding with those who wish to keep "Marriage" as the sole province of heterosexuals, preferring instead the safer-sounding "Civil Union" rubric that one expects would fall somewhere within the legal construct of "separate but equal" accommodations for the blac … er – the gays. So, at least on a certain level, you would have to concede that there has been no retreat by Obama on the matter of gay marriage. He was against it before; he is still against it now. ( The same applied to Bill Clinton. )
The thing that has gay people up in arms ( besides the drama over Prop 8 in California ) is the detailed, effusive support for DOMA referenced earlier. Though perhaps naïve one can be forgiven for questioning, that even if gay marriage is not part of Obama's political agenda, why did his administration have to deliver such a glowing endorsementof DOMA? If he is disinclined to argue for the repeal of DOMA, at the very least, it is reasonable to expect his support for this policy ( which codifies into law specific discrimination against gay people ) be articulated in softer, less-compelling language, tepid at best. Instead he has laid out a strategy for support of DOMA that appears – on its face – to further empower the many forces already allied against both gay marriage AND civil unions … making the political challenges ahead of us all the more difficult.
It goes without saying that this is not change we can believe in.
Why Obama has assumed these postures on these two central issues of importance to the LGBT communities would seem obvious, but perhaps it is not. One could say "its politics" and that would be, in part, correct. It is politics but it is not good politics. To piss-off an enormous and ( presumptively ) moneyed and influential core constituency group in order to support policies that will gain him no fans across the aisle, no matter how much they agree with him, seems foolish. He will only lose – if not our complete support – at least our enthusiasm. I, myself, confess to feeling – at times – like I no longer care enough about the rest of Obama's agenda because, in the end, our lives will still be frustrated by the same political arguments and enemies. The policies that destroy our dignity and tear away at our families and perpetuate discrimination and false-stereotypes will remain intact – again.
We have been down this road before, so the terrain is familiar. The difference this time is that many of us – most of us – truly believed change had come to our America. We set aside decades of frustration and disenfranchisement and allowed ourselves to be lifted by his soaring rhetoric. We dared to believe that maybe, finally, we were going to assume our rightful place at the table, alongside everybody else, no better than anyone else there … but finally welcome to share in the rights and privileges, dreams and opportunities this country has to offer.
As the anti-Obama rhetoric starts to fly, as the rest of his core goals are made to seem increasingly controversial and costly, as his own once-impregnable power and influence begins to falter – as even the Democrats in congress begin to prevaricate – it has become increasingly important to motivate those who supported him during the campaign to stand behind him now. ( Anybody on his Internet distribution list knows this already. ) The tricky thing about politics is that once a group of people feel they have been duped by such an extraordinary individual they a ) begin to think of him as somewhat less-than-extraordinary; and b ) are unlikely to ever fall blindly in lock-step behind that individual again. Not just because we are angry ( though we certainly are and have every right to be ) but because we will no longer care. And that is something every politician – even Barack Obama – should take very seriously.
